Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don’t know about where you live, but it is freaking HOT over here. For the past couple of days it’s been in the high 90s and for the next week it’s supposed to reach 100+ degrees. It’s been awful. So what does my smart brain decide to do? That’s right, I turn the oven on.

I was in the serious baking mood and realized I haven’t put up a cookie recipe in a while. The last one being these cookie dough balls, something that I should be making instead of turning on the oven. (Sticking your head inside the freezer feels marvelous after just being outside for just moments) And as good as they are, thoughs dough bites just aren't gooey cookies.

You all know Foodgawker, right? If you don’t, then don’t go over there unless you want to spend hours upon hours of drooling over and scrolling through delicious looking food. I have accumulated a lot of favorites on that site as a way of keeping track of all the marvelous treats I want to someday make. As I was looking through my favorites, I came across these chocolate chip orange cookies from CookingClassy.

I was intrigued by the use of orange in a chocolate chip cookie and thought that if the combination of chocolate and orange (Chocolate Orange- found during Christmas time) is such a success, why can’t it work in a cookie? Because come on, get real, everything tastes better in a cookie!

These are really delicious. The original recipe calls for orange extract, but I didn’t have it on hand and didn’t feel like buying a bottle for just one use, so I used the juice of the orange that I zested. The end result gave me a beautifully puffy and soft cookie with little flecks of orange. The orange flavor was there in the background, not being overly dominant. I found that the longer you regrigerate or freeze the dough, the more prominant the orange flavor becomes, which is something to keep in mind if you really like the chocolate-orange combo.

These were a delight to make, bake, and eat. So if you’re looking for something a little more special than your average chocolate chip, try these; you won’t regret it.

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Cooking Classy
Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients
1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cornstarch
½ tsp. baking power
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 ½ tsp. fresh orange juice
½ tbsp. orange zest
90g semi-sweet chocolate chips *

*this is the perfect amount for me, however some people like loads of chocolate chips in their cookies, so add accordingly to your taste

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set Bowl aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together on medium/medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the egg and beat until fully incorporated.  Beat in the vanilla extract, orange juice, and orange zest.

Turn the speed down to low and slowly add in the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop (I now have a slightly larger one now- a 1 tbsp. scoop) portion out the dough onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 1-2 inches between each portion. Bake on the middle rack for about 7-9 minutes. Leave on the cookie sheet to cool for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Sunny Citrus Bars

Oh my goodness! It’s been so long since I’ve actually posted anything, and I’m sorry. But I’ve had so much going on. Last week was kind of stress-week because I was preparing for finals and all that stuff. Then on Sunday I was celebrating Mother’s Day with my wonderful mama and this past week has been my fault. You see it was my last week of high school and I’m now officially done with school! Thursday was my last day, and I was just being really lazy. It’s weird, I’ve never been this lazy, and usually I’m so diligent. And then Saturday was my graduation ceremony. That's right, I'm officially a graduate! :D

Anyways, backup to the part about Mother’s Day. I love my mom so much, and I probably don’t tell her nearly enough. Actually, I’m kind of snarky with my mom. I don’t mean to be, it just happens. But, on Mother’s Day, I made it a point to make it all about her. By the way, this is a picture of my mom, me and my little sister. I think this was taken when I was about six. My mom is such a pretty lady.

So, a few weeks ago, I received this wonderful cookbook from Monica over at Lick the Bowl Good. She has such fabulous recipes and her photos are so beautiful. And Sunday happened to be her first Mother’s Day with her little boy Hayden. He looks like such a sweet-hart and I bet it was a memorable Mother’s Day for Monica.

In honor of Mother’s Day, Monica and I decided to bake something from the cookbook “together”. My mom is in love with citrusy foods, so I automatically suggested we make the Sunny Citrus Bars on page 92. We both agreed that they looked wonderful, and decided to bake the bars for Mother’s Day. If you would like to see Monica’s opinion on the citrus bars, click here.

I absolutely loved these bars. The cookie/shortbread-like crust was a perfect contrast to the tangy/gooey topping. I was actually a little afraid to bake the crust because it requires cutting in the butter until the flour is coarse and crumbly. I have never understood these directions, until I made these bars. I kept rubbing in the butter until the flour looked like sand. It was a magical moment for me. I know that sounds a little silly, but it was seriously a huge accomplishment.

I didn’t have any trouble with the filling, but that’s because it was so straight forward. I love straight forward recipes like that. You know the ones that require one bowl and a whisk? Yeah, this is that kind of recipe. Because I didn’t really feel like measuring, I adjusted the recipe below to approximate what I used (i.e. instead of ¼ cup orange juice I have typed half and orange). The glaze that goes on top is also really delicious. It never fully hardened like most glazes do, but that’s was made it so addicting to eat.

I know Mother’s Day seems like forever ago, but I hope all you mothers out there felt appreciated and loved (like you should everyday) and all you sons/daughters treated your mom with the kindness, love, and respect your mother deserves.

Sunny Citrus Bars
Adapted from Baking Basics and Beyond by Pat Sinclair
Makes one 9x9 inch pan
Crust Ingredients
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup powdered sugar
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, cold and cubed

Filling Ingredients
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 eggs, beaten
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 2 lemons
Zest from one orange
Juice from ½ an orange
2 tbsp. butter, melted

Glaze
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp. orange juice
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9x9 inch baking pan with tin foil, liberally grease the foil with cooking spray.
To make the crust: whisk together the flour and powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Rub the cold butter in with your fingers until the dough looks like coarse sand. Press evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the crust is a light golden color.
To make the filling: combine the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk in the eggs until the mixture becomes smooth. Stir in the juices, zests and butter. Pour the filling onto the hot crust and bake for about 12-15 minutes. The filling shouldn’t jiggle when you shake the pan, but it will still look a little wet. Let cool in the pan and drizzle the glaze on top once it has come to room temperature.

To make the glaze: stir together the powdered sugar and enough orange juice until the glaze has reached your desired consistency. Drizzle or spread the glaze on top of the cooled bars. Let the glaze set for a little while before slicing.    

Cake Slice Bakers - May 2011: Orange Almond Caramel Upside-down (Cup)cake

It’s the 20th again and that means Cake Slice Bakers will be posting all about this wonderfully moist cake from Cake Keeper Cakes by Laura Chattman. This months cake is called the Orange Almond Caramel Upside-down Cake, and it is delicious!

I didn’t want to make a full on cake this month because I felt that it would probably just sit on the counter forever. Thus, I make cupcakes. However, I didn’t want too many cupcakes, so I cut the recipe in half. By cutting the recipe in half, it gave me six cupcakes, and if you really, really try and squeeze out every last ounce of batter, you can get seven cupcakes. This, I think, is the perfect amount because after one night, there were only four cupcakes left, which seems a little less daunting to consume than nine.

This cake is supposed to have a brown-sugary almond top once the cake in inverted. Now, I kinda knew that this might not work with the cupcake, but I decided the try it anyway and put the topping on the bottom and I planned to take the cupcake liner off and turn it upside-down. Let me save you the trouble if you plan on making this in the form of cupcakes, put the topping on top of the cake, not on the bottom. I got a little bit of topping, but not much and I tried to scrape it off of the liner and onto the cake, but it just didn’t work. Oh well, we learn from our mistakes. Now, I’m just making this sound like a too complicated cake; it’s really not very difficult at all and the end result is a very tender and moist and just all around awesome cake!

I’ve never made cake with sour cream before because as a food, I don’t like sour cream. However, I will never snub my nose at a sour cream cake ever again because I now know the magical powers it possesses; it makes cakes super duper moist without the cake being kinda liquidy (has anyone had that experience where the cake is really moist {albeit it still tastes good} but it’s kinda wet it’s so moist?). This cake is so soft I’m pretty sure that I could replace it with my pillow. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating just a tad bit, but seriously, this is good stuff. The only thing I wish I had done was add the orange zest (I didn’t have an orange and didn’t want to go to the store). It would have definitely amped (ampt?) the orangey flavor of the cake because the orange juice alone was not enough for me.

I was afraid these hadn't cooked all the way because they seemed so springy when they came out of the oven. However, 15 minutes and 30 seconds was deffinately the right amount of time for these beauties.

As you can see, the topping really didn't stick to the cake; it stuck more to the liner. It still tasted very nice though!

Orange Almond Caramel Upside-down Cupcakes
barely adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes by Laura Chattman
makes 7 cupcakes

Ingredients
Topping
¼ cup sliced almonds
3 tbsp butter
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2.5 tbsp honey

Cake
¾ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
¼ cup sour cream
1 egg
2 tbsp orange juice
½ tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp unsalted butter, soft
½ cup sugar
½ tbsp orange zest

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake tin with paper liners. Place the alomds onto a nonstick baking pan and put them in the oven for about four minutes or until golden. Meanwhile, heat a small sauce pan on medium low and melt three tablespoons butter. Whisk in the brown sugar for two minutes. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cupcake liners. Sprinkle some of the toasted almond ontop of the sugar mixture and finish off the "topping" with a drizzle of honey
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the four tablespoons of butter and the sugar until fluffy, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the sour cream, egg, orange juice and vanilla extract and light whisk until combined. The result with be thick and creamy.
3. Add the sour cream mixture into the butter-sugar mixture and beat on medium for a few minutes. As you wait for that mixture to come together, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Then, with 1/2 cup intervals, add the flour mixture into the creamy mixture. After the last addition, beat for 30 seconds on medium speed.
4. Using a protion scoop, spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 15 minutes. Once baked, transfer onto a cooling rack and let stand for a few minutes. You can serve these warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition Facts
serving size: 1 cupcake

Calories 287.6 Total Fat 14.0 g Saturated Fat 0.9 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g Cholesterol 59.3 mg Sodium 146.5 mg Potassium 58.6 mg Total Carbohydrate 38.8 g Dietary Fiber 0.8 g Sugars 28.9 g Protein 11.1 g